Particle Physicist for a Day
On 6 March 2015, four students from the course ‘New Physics in English’ took part in the ‘Hands on Particle Physics Masterclasses’, which were hosted by the Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics at TU Dresden.
Matyáš Přibyl, Antonius Adler, Radek Salač and Vit Kalisz from grade 11 had the opportunity to get a close look at research methods in particle physics. After a short theoretical introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics and the building blocks of matter, they themselves could identify particles produced in collisions and evaluate real data from CERN in Geneva. Besides lots of quarks and antiparticles they also identified a Higgs-boson. After that they discussed their findings in a video conference with participants from other research institutions and CERN.
Being in direct contact with the scientists and working in an authentic environment was a great opportunity to unveil the secrets of particle physics.
P. Zeligmann